Ratman
by peterrabbit
Summary: Willard Stiles just wants his home back. After a small break down he's back and ready to go home. Even if it's in the form of the Ratman. The Batman is there to stop him from taking it back the wrong way. But is a trip to Arkham really the best way to?
1. Chapter 1

Part One

Summery: Willard Stiles just wants his home back. After a small break down he's back and ready to go home. Even if it's in the form of the Ratman. The Batman is there to stop him from taking it back the wrong way. But is a trip to Arkham really the best way to make sure he doesn't get any funny ideas?

_Note: It's strange that I haven't seen any Batman and Willard crossovers due to the fact that in the book he's stealing stuff and in the movie remake it seems like a solid idea for a good come back. Almost like a start of darkness deal._

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><p>Willard Stils walked away from the burning Bellevue Asylum that had held him for no more than a couple of years. This time with a small rat in hand, the "new" Socrates. He saw as the patients and doctors ran away in total panic with rats at their heels biting and scratching as they went along. It was only a matter of time before the fire trucks came and he was shipped back to that small gray room that wasn't even fit for the likes of rotting cat meat. Of course that was only his opinion of the place. He had waited this long and now he felt a bit more wiser and much more capable of handling the rats, now that that blasted Ben was dead and gone.<p>

Now, what is a newly freed man to do? Willard knew what he wants. With miles and miles to walk he had time to think his plan of action over. This time it will be much more organized.

After miles of walking he came across an abandoned convince store. He entered it consciously, eying the floor for unwanted movement. The rat scurried in the pocket of the coat he grabbed on his way out. "Shh..." he soothed the white rat. "Nothing to worry about..." he continued, "nothing at all."

He made his way out of the small closet, he found it amazing that he found a nice black suit that fit him since he lost quite a bit of weight in that so called hospital. He started stacking up on some food for later. Willard really didn't think that he would be needing anything so soon, but it would be a long walk up to the city. What city he wasn't sure of, but he did know that when he did get there he could start his plan. He knew what he was doing. He was sure of it and now he wouldn't be alone because he had Socrates. He will become the Ratman.

Pamela Isley was staring up at the rickety old television for the morning news, hoping that maybe something good happen toady, like a plague breaking out or a bus load of- hold the the growth serum.

"_Asylum on fire!_"

Well this is just disappointing, they can't even get their facts straighten out anymore. Pamela couldn't help but scoff at the oh so trust worthy news reporters.

"_And this time it's not Arkham!_"

"Hey, Red what's going on?" Harley said coming out of nowhere, she sat down next to her.

"Sigh, apparently there was a fire at a different asylum..."

"Wow, there's other asylums around here?" she jumped up and down. It was becoming harder and harder for Pam to believe that this used to be a rising doctor in the field of unlocking many of man kinds minds. Even them she would from times to time be able to come up with interesting theories. "I guess we don't get to here about them 'cause they're all well behaved and stuff." For a quick moment Pam thought that the old sofa was going to break. Unfortunately it didn't happen.

"_At 9:35 P.M there was an electrical failure that resulted in a mysterious fire. this ultimately left many injured among doctors and patients alike."_

"WOOT! Doctors gettn' hurt!" someone yelled, but this was quickly fallowed by many hushes, Pam couldn't help be amused that many of the self proclaimed geniuses master minds were taking the time to listen to some place burning down.

"B_ut, new revelations have lead us to think that this was no mare accident -wait I have just been told that we will air the footage that was saved from the fire." _The screen switched to a still of a somewhat tall man. "_Fire inspectors found the surveillance camera that may hold a very important key to who may have been behind this mess." _it was verycruddy picture, but one could still make out some points like the fact that the man was standing over what appeared to be a group of rats. Then the T.V suddenly turned off. Everyone who had been watching turned to see that it was Dr. Leland who held the remote.

"Sorry " she said so very nonchalantly "you guys can watch the news, but not this particular one."

"Why's that?" Edward Enigma inquired. "I mean, aren't we all old enough to not feel pressured to make a break in light of the situation."

All she did was smile and say, "Shouldn't you know?" and walked way, leaving a room full of insane criminals to form new escape plans in light of the recent events.

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><p>What happened in New York did find it's way, as most news, to the screen of the Dark Knight. He was about to head out on the nightly look over when he was side tracked by the headline reading <em>Arkham Asylum: the Fever Spreads. <em>It was about the fire that happened up in Bellevue not that long ago. He had a feeling that this was probably in connection to the recent break ins that had been happening in the area around it. Should he really go off to investigate some case when Gotham still needed him? Things had been quite lately.

He shook his mind of it and went out. Some other time when Two-Face and Scarecrow were back in Arkham.

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><p>In the dark was a man that sat watching the window, silence was the game. In actually it was a waiting one. What he was waiting for was to be explained to him at a much later time. Something had been in his little hide away spot, he thought nothing of it since most of the inhabitants where after all rats and they didn't over stay their welcome, but did get hungry from time to time. But what got to him was most was the fact that some of his clothes were missing. Call him old fashion, but it really got to him when people took his things. Jonathan Crane stood and wondered around the hide out again. He liked this place, not just because this was really the last place that Batman could find him, but that it really reminded him of most of the places he would use to hide from that hag of a woman grandmother. I was out of the way in the thoughts of Gotham. He really wanted to know who would even think about being able to fit into that suit of his.<p>

"Sigh... I really should have booby trapped this place." He said with a puff and sat once more. He looks over at the T.V set and wondered what was going on out there in the world. He hadn't really thought about it until he heard of the fire that happened in the nearby asylum. Crane wasn't able to recall the name at the moment.

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><p>He hadn't been at it for that long, two weeks tops. Maybe. It was a small area and he was just starting to get used to it when he started hearing terrible rumors. Rumors about a Batman making appearances. Willard had heard the name before he went 'mad' but he dismissed it as a myth to scare the criminals. Like the Boogeyman from children. Nothing more to him. But he was starting to worry about it since he was, well, a criminal now. At times he felt he was being watched, but how could he be? He kept his tracks as covered as they can get. In fact he was going to show that by breaking into this nice little home. It looked empty and that was one of his rules, empty homes only and if there so happens to be occupied then he would make his leave. That was something he took pride in. He wouldn't under your nose if you really were there.<p> 


	2. Chapter 2

Because I was reminded.

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><p>Part 2<p>

He walked up very boldly to the nice New Englansuqe home under the coldness of a mid-February night. It was dark and no lights were on in the streets, but he was okay with that. He liked working with the darkness. It made him feel somewhat stronger than he really was and in this type of business it was nearly very thing.

The place seemed empty, no car was in the drive way nor did Willard think that it was in the garage either. What he did know was that they, the people that lived there, were away on a vacation. That was one of his rules. Only enter when no one is home. He didn't want to mess with the people of the house, he wanted to avoid them at all cost. It was in a rat's nature to avoid trouble after all. He stopped at the door and peeked through the small windows around the door, no lights.

When he was starting this up some weeks ago he didn't know what to do when he got up to the door or even how to walk up to it without looking suspicions. About the only thing he did know was to pick a lock. He had learned in the hospital library, from the many books they had. He had practiced in his cell room and eventually around the whole of the hospital, but in many ways he was still very much a amateur. He wondered through out his stay there why they would even have books on locks and lock picking in the first place. But it didn't matter and he wasn't really complaining.

Willard took a deep breath, put his bag down, and took out two long and slander picks and quickly fed them into the key hole. In a matter of seconds he had opened the door, he checked for noise and looked at the key hole if he had left any scratch or marks of some kind. Every time he opened a door to some unknown home he would remember the time he took the rats to his old boss' home to chew out his car wheels, he couldn't help but smile at the memory; and every time he thought of that, the small white rat would run up his sleeve and rest on his shoulder. He in turn would pet it then drop him back into the coat breast pocket. He pick up the bag and close the door as silently as he could, then made his way to the kitchen to raid the cabinets for food or just anything, but he stopped dead in his tracks when he saw a young woman tied to one of the chairs.

He didn't step towards her, it was not like he was afraid that she would get a good look at his face, he wore a mask when he was out and about. What he was worried about was letting the other intruder know he was there. Well he hoped he hadn't notice his presents. All and all it left him with one question, what to do next? He couldn't leave and girl like that, it would leave a bad taste in his mouth. Then again he wasn't sure he would be able to take on the other guy, so much for the darkness. He felt like a little kid looking out for the real bogeyman. He took a deep breath and moved foreword. He was a thief and he could live with that, but he could not live with himself if he left someone in such a helpless state. Not if he could help.

Willard gathered his courage and walked over to the girl with intent on untying her. The problem? He saw that it was Catherine, he had to take a moment to process what was going on. Why was she here? Who did this to her? Though these are questions that would have been asked anyway but angered him to a great extent. He placed his bag down and crouched down next to her, she seemed out of it. Who would hurt someone like her, the only person in that hellhole of an office to show him kindness. No one deserved to have this done to them, she hadn't done anything to get this type of treatment.

"Who did this to you...?" he mummers this more to himself than at her. He reached out to undo the rope, they were tight, but nothing to worry about. He wasn't even sure if it was the slashes that stained her skin or the rope that dug into her skin that was making her bleed badly. He freed her and rested her as gently as he could on his shoulders, "Mind your head" he said to small white rat that had momentarily peeked out. He reached down to get his bag while feeling her faint takes and exhales of breath, he was about to leave when the most chilling of words broke through the air.

"What are you doing?" Willard dared not turn, but he knew he need to face the madman who would hurt another human.

"Just taking what I can carry." Willard replied with a voice unknown to him as he turned to the man. His voice was becoming more and more gritty to him, he did not mind. Things had to be scarified. The man shook his head and produced a simple butter knife. Willard stood watching with confusion. The man lounged at him and Willard move away as fast as he could with Catherine. The front of his suit was ripped open. He moved closer and japed at Willard. He in turn did his best to move away with out losing his footing or the grip on Catherine.

"Who are you?" Willard asked.

"I don't think that matters right now!" the man slashed again, but this time Willard decided to hit back with the bag. The man got him in the the hand causing him to drop a large bag he was holding. The rats held there poured out attacking the man. Willard took it as his cue to leave out the front door as the man tried to stomp on the rats.

-W-

After breaking into 3 cars, Willard finally found a car that worked and drove to the closes hospital he could think of. He noticed that Catherine was taking in less and less air, he shook to wake her up. He wasn't very sure if should have done that but he didn't want to just let her seep closer to the darkness. She felt so cold and wet. He quickly took his coat off and tried wrapping her with it, careful not to hurt her more or drive off a cliff. After that he just stared ahead, not really sure what else to do, but drive as fast as he could. He took his mask off and glace at her from the corner of his eye.

"I was thinking of looking you up when I came out of that place..." he started weakly "sorry, I didn't get around to it..." his grip on the wheel tighten. "Sorry we had to met up this way."

"Willard..." He nearly tore the wheel off when he heard her say his name. He looked ahead at the almost endless road for what seemed like ten minutes. That shut him up real good. "Willard...are you...there?"

"I'm here..." he said hesitantly.

"I'm...cold...so...cold.."

He gulped down a sob, this wasn't the first time that someone close and dear to him was passed way. His father, mother and Socrotes had passed away and alone no less, he wasn't there for them and he would be damned if he wasn't for her. He reached out and held her hand, she wasn't necessary close to him, but she was dear and she needed someone. He floored it. Light was coming and his breath picked up thinking it was a hospital.

***HONK***

He serwerd, it was a truck that lead him down a ditch. For one swift moment he feel like he was flying, that ended when Willard had hit a tree. He opened his eyes took a quick glance to see where Catherine was. She was hunched over still holding. The took a moment to catch his thoughts.

_Get Catherine and myself out._

Pam was growing tired of the endless group therapy sessions, about the only reason why she looked forward to them was that every once and awhile Harley would show up to them. And when she did things got funny, they got interesting. They became bearable. But not today. She had to deal with Edward, Harvey, Jervis, and the new kid, Jane. She looked like hell, that was putting it mildly.

It was insulting really. Here Pam was with the power to shake cities, take and give life, but she was stuck in a small room with five nobodies.

"...And does that make you feel uneasy?"

"**Nothing doc, in fact it makes he feel like I have an edge now." **Harvey was yammering on about that fire again. Pam didn't find it all that amusing, if the villains of Gotham were influencing people in other hospitals to act out than it was a call for alarm.

"And you Pam? It looks like you have something on the mind." the no name doctor asked her.

"Besides the fact that that fire shouldn't infect us in daily life here, nothing."

"Why do you think that?"

"Jesus..." she whispered under her breath. "It's just some guy who wanted to leave what ever treatment he was being given, not something to stop and analyze." She finished with a puff.

"Pammy, if I didn't know better, I would say that you're being a little jealous." Edward chimed in.

"Oh, blow it out your ass, Eddy!" She rolled her eyes.

"Aw, come along guys, don't fight." Jervis tried to clam everyone down, and failing miserably.

"Alright I think that's it for today!" Doctor no name said out loud.

As she was being lead out she couldn't help but let her eyes wonder over to Jane. She sat calmly, waiting for her turn to leave. Then to Jervis, who really was very harmless. Pam blew some of her hair out of her face, what did people do to get stuck in a place like this with people so quirky? What was insane these days. Wouldn't Doctor no name be seen insane for spending his days with the unwanted children of society? If not than does a degree in whatever stop someone from being called crazy? It didn't for Crane, then at what point do people start to lose their way? That man who left the hospital, did he just lose his way like so many of the rats in this world? Does wanting to leave what is seen as their place crazy? If so then this was revolutionary. Women didn't want to 'stay in their place' than they were seen as crazy, now it's the norm to see them as doctors, artist and criminals. In fact some of the better known artist and reformers were seen as insane!

_'The people who lock us away are crazy, not the revolutionist.' _Pam had finally concluded as she was shut away in her cell.

At that moment of clarity the door burst open and in came the Batman carting a unconscious Jonathan Crane. It did not matter to Pam though, it always seemed that he would appear very time that she was thinking of an escape plan. His presents did not distract her, she would not allow it, especially when she was on a roll.

-W-


End file.
